Humor Random Comments Thread

[Woo482]

I made my first earth to moon then back again flight today but the XR2 exploded on re-entry

 

[astrosammy]

http://spaceweather.com/

ISS on Tycho. Just awesome. The photographer has some pictures of previous lunar transits at earlier stages of ISS construction.

Whoa that looks cool. Any information on how fast the ISS' shadow moves across the Moon?

I made my first earth to moon then back again flight to day but the XR2 exploded on re-entry

I'm also still trying to make a reentry from moon with XR-2. I'm curently making it with aerobraking several times. But that takes some hours, so I'm trying to get it down directly.

 

[cjp]

Whoa that looks cool. Any information on how fast the ISS' shadow moves across the Moon?

It's not ISS' shadow, is it? I thought it was ISS itself, with the moon in the background.

I don't think ISS' shadow would be that sharp at the distance of the moon.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbra. The umbra of the moon reaches just to the surface of the earth at a solar eclipse (and sometimes is doesn't). The umbra of MUCH smaller objects (like the ISS) doesn't reach such large distances by far.

What you see in the picture is the ISS being in between the camera and the moon. So you see ISS itself, and not its shadow. It may look like ISS is close to the moon, but, of course, the ISS is much closer to the camera than the moon. This optical illusion is partially a result of the fact that space is a vacuum, and hence far-away objects are not blurred by haze.

Very spectacular picture btw.

 

[tblaxland]

Whoa that looks cool. Any information on how fast the ISS' shadow moves across the Moon?

As cjp says, you are seeing the silhouette of the ISS, not its shadow.

As for the transit time, it can be calculated accurately if you know all the parameters but some quick estimates indicate approx 0.5s depending on the position of the moon and the ISS at the time (less if it doesn't cross the full disk).

Do a Google image search for more. One of my favourites:
http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/iss_atlantis_transit.html

 

[Quick_Nick]

As cjp says, you are seeing the silhouette of the ISS, not its shadow.

As for the transit time, it can be calculated accurately if you know all the parameters but some quick estimates indicate approx 0.5s depending on the position of the moon and the ISS at the time (less if it doesn't cross the full disk).

Do a Google image search for more. One of my favourites:
http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/iss_atlantis_transit.html

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure the ISS is casting a shadow on the sun right there.
I'm just kidding of course. Had to say it. :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

Damn... it already snows here... I thought this will start this afternoon

 

[SiberianTiger]

Damn... it already snows here... I thought this will start this afternoon

Why "damn"? It already melts here, and this is really "damn".

 

[Urwumpe]

Why "damn"? It already melts here, and this is really "damn".

Because I wanted to do the weekend shopping and still have summer tires on my car... which is illegal in Germany since some years when you have such weather.

In my younger years, when it was still legal to use summer tires in the winter as long as you don't cause a crash, I was able to get to all places by only reducing the speed to 40 km/h... which was only slightly lower as the speed of cars with winter tires, unless the driver intended to get first aid from me....

 

[cjp]

Damn... it already snows here... I thought this will start this afternoon

No snow here yet, I haven't seen snow for years. Now I only a serious storm here. The roof sounds like it can be blown off every moment, but it probably won't: it's been on the house for more than 50 years.

If we get a cold winter, then maybe we will have one last Elfstedentocht, before the climate really starts taking off...

 

[Andy44]

It's cold here, now, temps getting to freezing point. We had some snow flurries the last few days but nothing to stick to the ground yet.

Random thought: It's good to have a fireplace.

 

[Tex]

It's been fairly cold here too for this area. Today was cold in the water as I was working... brrr.. I have a feeling this is going to be a cold winter for us!

 

[Pilot7893]

Off Topic: FSX seems to be slowly eating up my interest with Orbiter.

 

[Linguofreak]

No snow here yet, I haven't seen snow for years. Now I only a serious storm here. The roof sounds like it can be blown off every moment, but it probably won't: it's been on the house for more than 50 years.

If we get a cold winter, then maybe we will have one last Elfstedentocht, before the climate really starts taking off...

Interestingly enough, one of the effects speculated for global warming is that it might disrupt the flow of the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe warm. So while general global temperatures would rise, Europe might actually cool.

 

[astrosammy]

WOW

 

[Woo482]

Lucky for some people I don't get snow I just get wind and rain

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Lucky for some people I don't get snow I just get wind and rain

Stiff upper lip, old boy!

 

[Master of Blades]

We've got some snow here too... This is the view from the window of my computer-room this afternoon.


On another account, I got the company of two Nazis on the subway home today... Rather unpleasant...

 

[wehaveaproblem]

I think 13:11 2012 is the end of the world. My orbiter just crashed 3 times in a row when it reached that time/date...

prophetic?

 

[Bj]

I just found out that Orbiter will crash when you have about 4,300 vessels.

 

[cjp]

Lucky for some people I don't get snow I just get wind and rain

We had some snow in the Netherlands in the weekend, although here close to the coast it was just about 2cm, and disappeared in the evening when it started to rain. Now it's still rainy.

Why does rain feel so much colder than snow? Is it because it soaks your clothing and reaches your skin?